Retailers Fear Payroll Tax Will Cut Consumer Spending

By

Serena Ng

Updated Jan. 13, 2013 7:48 p.m. ET

American workers are opening their first paychecks of the year and finding an unpleasant surprise: The government's take has gone up.

A temporary cut in Social Security withholdings gave Americans hundreds of extra dollars to spend over the past two years. But Congress allowed that break to expire during the wrangling over the fiscal cliff, meaning that Social Security taxes have reverted to 6.2% of salary from the temporary...